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Luke Harding

Russia has suggested that Julian Assange should be awarded the Nobel peace prize, in an unexpected show of support from Moscow for the WikiLeaks founder, who is currently in custody in the U.K. pending an extradition hearing.

In what appears to be a calculated dig at the U.S., the Kremlin urged non-governmental organisations to think seriously about “nominating Assange as a Nobel Prize laureate”.

“Public and non-governmental organisations should think of how to help him,” the source from inside President Dmitry Medvedev's office told Russian news agencies. Speaking in Brussels, where Mr. Medvedev was attending a Russia-EU summit on Wednesday, the source went on: “Maybe, nominate him as a Nobel Prize laureate.” Russia's reflexively suspicious leadership appears to have come round to WikiLeaks, having decided that the ongoing torrent of disclosures are ultimately far more damaging and disastrous to America's long-term geopolitical interests than they are to Russia's.

Initial reaction

The Kremlin's initial reaction to stories dubbing Russia a corrupt “mafia state” and kleptocracy was negative. Mr. Medvedev's spokesman dubbed the revelations “not worthy of comment” while Putin raged that a U.S. diplomatic cable comparing him to Batman and Mr. Medvedev to Robin was “arrogant” and “unethical”. State TV ignored the claims. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2010

WikiLeaks data stored in Cold War-era bunker

London: Just like in a 007 film, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has kept thousands of secret U.S. diplomatic files at a former Swedish Cold War nuclear bunker that houses dozens of powerful computer servers used as storage by many companies.

“With his eccentric personal life and air of mystery, the flamboyant WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange seems to be doing his best to impersonate a James Bond villain,” the Daily Mail commented.

The British paper also published pictures of the Pionen data centre, 100 feet below ground in a former Cold War nuclear bunker, where all the WikiLeaks files are being kept. The bunker was built in the 1970s to protect essential government functions from any nuclear strike.

The vast cave, drilled into granite under the Vita Berg Park in Stockholm, houses dozens of computer servers used as storage by many companies, said the report.

Complete with a “floating” conference room, suspended glass corridors, lunar landscape flooring and designer furniture, it also has German U-boat engines as back-up generators, said the paper.— PTI